I wanted Chris Walker to be named head coach of Texas Tech. I had hope he could bring our program up, with him getting Keith Frazier, Wannah Bail, keeping Josh Gray, Jaye Crockett, Aaron Ross, and Jordan Tolbert. I saw a good thing happening, and something that was growing here at Tech. I had hope that we would keep building and be the next team in the Big 12 to show we could keep growing from the depths of the cellar to be an elite team in the Big 12. We had a coach that I would back and could keep seeing the positive to strengthen the program. I had hope.
Tubby Smith was named head coach. He comes with a long distinguished background as a head coach in college basketball. Starting his head coaching career at the University of Tulsa in the 1991-1992 season where he stayed at Tulsa four seasons. Smith had a 79-43 overall record as the Tulsa coach, and led the Hurricane to the Sweet 16 twice. He then accepted the head coaching position at the University of Georgia. At Georgia he had a 45-19 overall record (19-13 in SEC) in two seasons, and made the NCAA tournament both seasons. He made the switch the University of Kentucky when Rick Pitino left UK for the NBA. With most of Pitino’s team left on the roster in his first year at UK he won a national championship with the Wildcats. He stayed ten seasons at UK finishing with an overall record of 263-83 (120-40 in SEC) and made the NCAA tournament every season with a couple trips to the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight. Smith resigned from UK to accept the Minnesota job. After six seasons at Minnesota he finished with an overall record of 124-81 (46-62 in Big Ten). He took the Gophers to the NCAA tournament in three of those six seasons. Tubby Smith is now the head coach of Texas Tech.
I now don’t have hope but I have high expectations. I have high expectations for Tubby Smith and our basketball program. He wasn’t brought in to rebuild slow, he needs to rebuild fast. I will not accept a few years to get a few wins in the conference, I want a lot of wins to happen now. With the money we are paying, I’m going to be critical if we don’t see results fast. Tubby has a great basketball background, and we should see sharp changes right away. A young coach had the leniency of figuring out the team and building it as he built the program, Tubby won’t get my sympathy if he doesn’t get the program on track right away.
Tubby Smith comes as a safe hire. And that safe hire comes with high expectations. I will keep giving weekly trends of this Red Raiders team each and every week we play, but I will expect Tubby to show the squad the way to do it better. Wins puts the butts in the seats, wins makes fans happy, and Tubby doesn’t have the luxury of time for me to feel sorry if this doesn’t happen. I will expect it. Sorry if I am being too judgmental, but I expect our hire to live up to its end of the deal. A great coach should do great things. This isn’t Kentucky, this isn’t Minnesota, this is Texas Tech… and we want the best for our basketball program. Please show us the way Tubby, and make Texas Tech basketball relevant. I want Texas Tech basketball to be the best it can be under a national championship coach. Welcome to Tech Tubby Smith, and get your guns up. Wreck ‘em Tech!